Ventricular assist devices (“VAD”) pump blood in parallel with the native ventricles of the human heart. This provides blood flow to the body when the patient's own heart is in failure. A typical implantation of a VAD in the left side configuration takes blood from the apex of the left ventricle and returns blood to the ascending aorta at higher pressure. The VAD thereby takes on a significant portion of the work done by the native heart without removing the native heart.
VADs are at times used in temporary applications, such as bridge to heart transplantation or bridge to recovery of the native heart. However, the largest application of VAD's is likely to be long-term use of the device through the duration of the patient's life. This is also known as destination therapy (“DT”) use of the device.